In forming color photographic images, light-sensitive layers containing three of yellow, magenta, and cyan color photographic couplers, respectively, are imagewise exposed, and then processed with a color developing solution containing a color developing agent. In this process, the couplers undergo a coupling reaction with an oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine to provide colored dyes.
Standard processing steps for silver halide color photographic materials generally comprise a color developing step where a color image is formed, a silver-removing step where developed silver and undeveloped silver are removed, and a water washing and/or image-stabilizing step.
The art has attempted to shorten the processing time and, recently, there has been an increased need to shorten this processing time because of the requests for delivery of the finished prints in a shorter time period and the attempts to both reduce work in laboratories and reduce the size and facilitating procedures for processing systems for small-scale laboratories, also called "mini-laboratories".
Shortening the time associated with the color developing step can be attained by properly combining the following techniques: using a coupler which has as rapid a coupling speed as possible, using a silver halide emulsion which has a rapid processing speed, using a color developing solution which has a rapid developing speed, and raising the temperature of the color developing solution.
Shortening the time for the desilverization or silver-removing step can be attained by decreasing the pH of either a bleaching solution or a bleach-fixing solution. Such acceleration of bleaching and fixing by decreasing pH of the bleach-fixing solution is described in The Theory of the Photographic Process, ed. T. H. James, Chap. 15, E. Bleach-Fix System.
However, acceleration of the bleaching step by decreasing the pH of the bleach-fixing solution can cause the deterioration of the image quality, because dyes which are formed from cyan couplers are converted to their leuco form to be decolorized, and do not return to the colored form before completion of the processing (hereinafter this phenomenon is referred to as "color restoration failure"). This causes an undesirable decrease in density. After the processing, color restoration gradually destroys the color balance of the image.
In order to solve this problem, the color-developed light-sensitive materials are washed with water to remove the color developing agent before the bleach-fixing step. However, this technique requires the number of processing steps to be increased and thus, the total processing time is prolonged.
Alternatively, a water-soluble ionic compound containing a polyvalent element can be added to the bleach-fixing bath as proposed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,510. However, this technique increases environmental pollution while failing to fully attain the objectives discussed above.
On the other hand, the conventional use of hydroquinones or quinones to control gradation, prevent fog, and prevent the fading of magenta dyes, as well as other purposes, is described, for example, in JP-A-55-161238, JP-A-60-60647, JP-A-53-32034 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), West German Patent Application (OLS) Nos. 2,149,789 and 3,320,483A1, JP-A-58-24141, JP-A-46-2128, JP-B-43-4934, JP-B-50-21249, JP-B-60-3171 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-A-49-106329, JP-A-49-129535, British Patent 1,465,081, JP-A-49-129536, JP-A-49-134327, JP-A-50-110337, JP-A-50-156438, JP-A-51-6024, JP-A-51-9828, JP-A-51-14023, JP-A-52-65432, JP-A-52-128130, JP-A-52-146234, JP-A-52-146235, JP-A-53-9528, JP-A-53-55121, JP-A-53-139533, JP-A-54-24019, JP-A-54- 25823, JP-A-54-29637, JP-A-54-70036, JP-A-54-97021, JP-A-54-133181, JP-A-55-95948, JP-A-56-5543, JP-A-56-83742, JP-A-56-85748, JP-A-56-87040, JP-A-56-153342, JP-A-57-112749, JP-A-57-176038, JP-A-58-136030, JP-A-59-72443, JP-A-59-75249, JP-A-59-83162, JP-A-59-101650, JP-A-59-180557, JP-A-60-60647, JP-A-59-189342, JP-A-59-191031, JP-A-60-55339, and JP-A-60-263149, Research Disclosure, Vol. 228, No. 2287 (1983), and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,384,658, 2,403,721, 2,728,659, 2,735,765, 3,700,453, 2,675,314, 2,732,300 and 2,360,290. In particular, the prevention of fog through the use of hydroquinones which are substituted with an electron withdrawing group in an intermediate layer has been described, for example, in JP-B-59-35012, JP-A-56-109344 and JP-A-57-22237. However, there is no discussion relating to the color restoration failure in the above-mentioned publications.
Because hydroquinones can cause color restoration failure when employed in combination with a bleach-fixing solution having a comparatively high pH and which is adulterated with a color developing solution, the use of decreased amounts of hydroquinones has been proposed, for example, in JP-A-60-60647.
Further, JP-A-63-316857 relates to a method for preventing color restoration failure where a bleach-fixing solution having a low pH is employed with hydroquinones or quinones each substituted with an alkyl group. Although this method has had an effect on preventing color restoration failure, further improvement in this area is still needed. In addition, cyan color images provided by this method can degrade when the developed photographic materials are preserved under light of very high illuminance.